Goodness, that’s a big garden! I bet it takes quite a bit of looking after

Ours is pint sized compared to that, about 40 foot long. But it has ‘rooms’ which supposedly are the right thing for gardens, a bed for bulbs and delphiniums, fuschias, a bamboo and ground cover...... a couple of small raised beds where we grow peas, runner beans and strawberries, facing the southwest, a long thin bed under the back wall facing northwest but it gets warmth from the wall, where we grow broad beans, we set them back a bit this year and I’m growing chard in front (hopefully!) . 6 blueberries in tubs as they like ericaceous soil, one potato tub with earlies growing up, and apart from all that, small trellises to mark the cool ‘square’ where the bench and fire pit sit, (that’s where two loganberries get trained over) and a trellis to mask the shed with a thornless blackberry growing over it......Oh and a pot to grow lettuces too!

A lawn too, it’s a very busy garden! But it’s all up to date and pleasant to sit and enjoy!

Today was so warm when we got to our Bombe Gallery, I opened windows to get a through breeze and found my hand held fan out of my bag. Somehow the pedestal fan which we brought with us when the Bombe moved, has been put away safely since last summer and nobody seems to know where!

but the day went ok and we didn’t get too exhausted, though needless to say we had done too much gardening yesterday!

I went to town earlier, a 30 mile round trip and did some shopping. As my hair has gone incredibly dry, brittle and won't hold any wave and its generally looking vile, I thought I'd stuff it under one of new turbans I bought from hipheadwesr and go out all black and white and feeling smart. As I left Argos carrying 3 boxes 2 people asked if I needed a hand to the car. I didn't understand and thought maybe i looked too old 2 be cartying boxes, until I looked into rear view mirror and realised, aren't people lovely

Came home and cleaned the kitchen and the cupboard under the stairs out and I mean clean!!! Then after 5 hours I suddenly realised 1. It's my minimum immunity week. 2. I wasn't wearing gloves . 3 I cut my hand on something and not noticed when. So I stopped pronto. I'm knackered now. But alive

yes ... isn’t the weather so summer like. You’ve got a very busy garden moomy ..... although ours is bigger, but not as big as Lellyv, it is mainly trees, shrubs and lawn. Actually the lawn has quite a bit of moss in it ... as Japanese cultivate moss I now class our garden as a natural Japanese garden . It’s mainly for the benefit of wildlife. Got to get out and tackle the patio and drive weeds.

I don't know if your aware, I wasn't u too recent years, but all us gardeners that get out there and do the first cut ate depriving the bees of their first good feed of the season. Dandelions, daisies, clover etc, all the stuff we see come up through the grass and drives us to do that early cut is leaving do many bees without food. I haven't done my first cut yet, it'll be tough as it's thick, full of weeds, all flowering of course and about 6 inches long. But hey, no need- no us.

Yes I have a small, very stone patch about 20x15 that I gave up on as a veg patch a d chucked poppy, mix daisies, oxeye daises calendula and other stuff on. It runs itself most of the summer and then when everything has seeded I just land clear it. Maybe not this year though!

we too have a few bits of wild patches, and the council (not purposely but by accident!) grows a huge selection of dandelions, which are often the bees first food! I’ve been given some ‘bee bombs’ which I will pop into our tiny front garden bed, grew some wildflowers there before but the huge wild cornflowers took over so they got removed. We also have lavender which the bees love too.

About s third of my garden is reclaimed waste ground, an old council car park and solid hard-core. I travelled it 30 years ago and the thyme and rock roses have self seeded over the years to give a pretty deep pink and white carpet the bees love. I just pull where I need to allow pathways through.

A few years ago my granddaughter was watching me put my hands into thyme bushes that were swsmming with feeding bees to pull the random grasses that grow. She couldn't believe I didn't get stung. I told her if you talk to them quietly and font hurt them they won't hurt you, she loves helping miw5, although she is careful to ask their permission to help keep their plants weed free. So sweet to see.

We had a very quiet day today demonstrating the Bombe, so when home I went for a swift walk, it now feels as if today has been useful! Garden has been watered and individual macaroni cheeses in the oven for dinner! Hubs never likes eating early if we’ve been out for most of the day!

I watched that programme too Lellyv and although we know about climate change my OH and I spotted one item reported on that they didn’t give the main cause of. Although Kerala does get heavy rains and flooding the recent major floods they reported on were actually caused by water being let out of 5 overfilled reservoirs at the same time. Also, apparently a lot of trees are felled for oil so it can be made into biofuel ... apparently huge demand by EU. Is it a bit like only seeing the tip of the iceberg ... to get to the truth we have to look further ... like doing a risk cause analysis. Everything feels like a catch 22 situation. Then there’s the plastic problem etc etc etc We don’t have solar power although OH would like it or residential wind turbine. I then question whether the batteries used to store electricity are recyclable, which I doubt. That brings me onto electric cars...what about their batteries... I could go on and on looking at issues surrounding renewables just because we have to get it all right. We may end up causing more probs in the future ... just look at plastic.

Yes I too am frightened by how much is glossed over or simply ignored in these programmes on climate change. We bought a diesel vehicle when everyone was urging the whole population to do so, it’s now quite elderly. However it’s only ever let us down once. And hubs actually knows that the ‘scrappage’ talked about actually is far more environmentally damaging than simply running our vehicle (well maintained) until it really does ‘die’. He was involved in researching the recycling of vehicles to see how bad for the environment it really is; and it’s mega bad! So I suspect that’s exactly what we will do.

I too wish we could have solar panels and wind turbines fitted to every property in the country, but sadly the amount you are (not) granted for doing so means it really hurts the purse and doesn’t give huge benefits for some years. Insulating is another idea but again it costs, and with the 1970’s house that we live in, they were built so fast (with poor supervision so the links between inner and outer wall is often almost crossed by poor brickwork!) that only certain types of wall insulation are practicable otherwise the damp transfers and sets in! (I’ve seen it happen in others’ houses)

if the government had been plucky enough to take a long term view years ago, this country would have been self sufficient in electricity by wave power. But no government looked to longer than their term in power!

Wish we could solve the problems that we are inevitably leaving to the next generations, so sad.